Texas Legislature Special Session – Privacy Bill

Senator Kolkhorst says,"Texas has a tradition of taking care of these issues and not being dictated to by the federal government. " She says this legislation is the balance "between the right to declare your gender and the right of a parent to protect your child. "

This issue has been coming to the forefront for several years. Houston tried to implement ordinances without Citizen input including demanding businesses to comply changing to gender neutral bathrooms . There was the threat of the NCAA pulling out of events or the Super Bowl leaving the state if the city did not implement these new policies. In spite of the threats Houston voted to stop the implementation of these new ordinances.

President Obama wrote a "Dear Colleague " letter which basically was ruling by decree that all entities that received federal funds needed to implement these gender neutral policies.
Because several local school boards and some cities changed policy without Citizen input it became an issue for the whole state.

In regular session SB6 from Senator Kolkurst was voted out of the Senate and a much weaker HB 2899 from Rep. Simmons never was voted on in the House.

Special session is addressing this issue now. SB3 has passed the Senate but HB46 from Rep. Simmons is still sitting there.